The time has finally arrived for the New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball Team to tipoff their season as they are set to host Utah Tech (formally known as Dixie State) back when they hosted the Lobos during the Covid 2020-2021 season. The Lobos went 2-1 during their exhibition season with wins over Oklahoma State (in Stillwater) and Washington State here in The PIT Powered by Nusenda, and a loss against Arizona State here in Albuquerque. The Lobos are looking to build momentum early in the season before the big games start coming up. If the Lobos play to their abilities they shouldn’t have too much issues tonight in the opener, the Lobos need star guard Jake Hall to be hitting shots early to open things up for the other players on offense, that didn’t happen until late against ASU in the last exhibition. The Lobos will be without Rytis Petraitis who is still out with the leg injury, every other Lobo in the rotation will be dressed out for the Lobos. Utah Tech will play a schedule full of NAIA games at home and buy games on the road (including tonight), before they start playing their Big Sky schedule. It will be interesting to see if the rotation for Coach Olen and Co. is the same as it has been the last two exhibitions that they played without Petraitis, my guess is they will stay very close to that depending on how the players in the 4 and 5 spots are producing. As always I will be updating this as the game goes on, and will be updating on Twitter and Bluesky as well. Let’s get this season started!
Starters for the game tonight:
Lobos: Uriah Tenette, Jake Hall, Hudson Mayes, Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi, and Federico Grani.
Utah Tech Trailblazers: Mark Brown Jr., Christian Gibson, Preston Vandermyde, Owen Mackay, and Ethan Potter.
7-0 run to start this game for the Lobos, which is finally broken by a 3 by Gibson for Utah Tech.
15:55 1H: Lobos 9 Utah Tech 5. Coach Olen did not agree with the last call as an Utah Tech player slid under Mayes after he gathered his shot on the drive. Four different Lobos have scored so far, including the first 3 of the season for Jake Hall.
Jake Hall is up to 8 points after hitting 5 FTs the last couple of possessions.
10:14 1H: Lobos 21 Utah Tech 16. Howell will have 2 FTs after the TO. Dax Hall has scored his first points as a Lobos, Mayes with a really nice finish in transition, and Tenette with his first 3 of the season to give the Lobos offense some life. Expecting a spurt coming up in the next few minutes.
7:55 1H: Lobos 23 Utah Tech 17. Utah Tech will have 2 FTs after the TO, that is also Grani’s 3rd foul of the game. Grani scored his first points of the season, but has picked up a couple of fouls being out of position and reaching. Interesting to see how Coach Olen and co. handle the little foul trouble the are in with Mayes with 2 fouls as well.
3:07 1H: Lobos 31 Utah Tech 30. Weird first half continues, Utah Tech has the chance to take the lead with a 1-1 after the TO, Mayes picks up foul number 3. Jake Hall up to 14 points to lead the way for the Lobos.
Halftime: Lobos 38 Utah Tech 33. Jake Hall leads the way for the Lobos with 19 points, Christian Gibson has 11 to lead the way for Utah Tech. Lobos are shooting 53.8% at the half, but only have three 3s, and have only forced 5 turnovers in the first half, that is something that is going to have to change in the second half.
15:57 2H: Lobos 53 Utah Tech 40. Jake Hall up to 25 points, Tenette with 13 points.
Jake Hall up to 27 points, Tenette finds Grani for the bucket inside, but picks up his fourth foul with 14:27 left.
13:18 2H: Lobos 61 Utah Tech 44. Lobos have created space with really good offense and way better defense to start the second half.
11:39 2H: Lobos 68 Utah Tech 44. Benjamin Schuch has been really good for the Lobos tonight. Mayes joins Tenette and Jake Hall in double figures.
6:30 2H: Lobos 83 Utah Tech 51. Lobos have been able to turn up the pressure on defense and has done a great job of finding the open man and hit some shots. Lobos only created 5 first half turnovers for Utah Tech, they have double that output in the first 13:30 of the second half with 10 second half forced turnovers.